Season premiere review: ‘Masters of Sex’ – ‘Parallax’

“Masters of Sex” is back for a new season. I reviewed the start of the new season on Friday, and I have specific thoughts on the season premiere coming up just as soon as I can buy an extra $100 worth of french lingerie every month…

“We have the work.” -Virginia

“Parallax” is an episode that tries very much to live up to its title by giving us different angles on the immediate aftermath of Bill's declaration at the end of season 1. We revisit Bill and Virginia's night together multiple times, each time getting a new perspective, until we can fully understand the nature of this new phase of their relationship. That puzzle structure, with the same scene shown multiple times at different lengths, is one of those stylistic flourishes where the payoff really has to be worth the repetition, and here it absolutely is. As we hear more and more of Virginia's conversation with Ethan – where she tries to justify abandoning a perfect nice guy (who would have still supported her professional aspirations) by pointing to the study itself – we realize that Bill's declaration has changed nothing between them. They are still lying about why they're together, with Virginia inadvertently crushing the eavesdropping Bill, and Bill in turn reverting to the role of the “happily married man” who is doing this only for science.

It's always a tricky thing for the show to make us feel sympathy for Bill – especially in an episode where he's just so awful about the new baby, his mother's continued presence, and more – and yet the slow teasing out of their night together accomplishes exactly that. Virginia doesn't intend to wound Bill, but she does, and now they are playing a married couple in a hotel a half hour north of St. Louis, neither able to talk about their feelings for one another. It could play out as a shameless hit of the reset button, but instead simply feels like the latest two-step in a relationship that is never going to be less than complicated.

And building “Parallax” along the narrative spine of Bill and Virginia's new arrangement as Dr. and Mrs. Holden (they can only act like a couple when they're assuming other identities) is helpful, given how much of the rest of the episode involves sending off supporting characters from season 1 and introducing some of their replacements.

Beau Bridges and Allison Janney have CBS sitcom commitments, and Rose McIver's going to be in the CW's “iZombie,” but the Scully family isn't simply abandoned. Instead, we see Barton continue going through his sincere but misguided gay conversion plan, which includes both a terrifying electro-shock therapy session, then using gay porn to try to pump himself up for sex with poor Margaret(*). Bridges and Janney are both so heartbreaking in that sequence, because we know the love between them is real, even as we know that there is no circumstance under which he will ever desire her, and that's all she wants at this stage of her lonely existence. The scene where Margaret and Vivian prevent Barton's suicide attempt is incredibly harrowing for its matter-of-fact presentation (the great veteran director Michael Apted knows when to turn the camera on and get out of the way). I'll miss these characters while they're gone, though I know the show isn't done with them yet.

(*) I suppose it could have been even more humiliating than asking her to turn her back to him; he could have asked her to put on a suit and tie, and/or a fake mustache.

Broadway giveth, and Broadway taketh away: with her run on “Kinky Boots” wrapped up, Annaleigh Ashford returns as Betty, and is instantly a delight again, as well as a convenient plot device to get the study up and running at a new hospital, while Jane heads out to Hollywood with her boyfriend because Heléne Yorke is now starring in “Bullets Over Broadway.” I wish we could have a show that featured both characters – each of whom adds some distinct comic spice to what can at times be a dour show – but I'll take them one at a time if that's what the show biz universe is allowing.

Ann Dowd is currently appearing on every show on television (in this hour alone, she was also on another “Leftovers”), which means Bill's mother has to be chased out of town, following a brutal sequence where Bill cranks up the music rather than responding to the baby. That scene is Bill at his coldest and most cruel, even as it's clear how damaged he was by his own father – and by Essie's inability to stop the abuse – and it shows our man as a very poor father and son at once.

The generosity of Betty's Pretzel King husband also introduces us to our first major new character in Dr. Douglas Greathouse, played by Danny Huston. Huston's fresh off of another show set in this exact period (Starz's “Magic City”), but turns off the scenery chewing antics he used in the previous role, while still making it clear that this guy is a creep whose interest in the study is nowhere near as pure as Bill or Virginia's.

And fortunately, we're not losing the supporting cast wholesale. Langham's still around, and has stepped up his cheating to an impressive new level – his wife's sister! – until Mrs. Langham has had enough and publicly humiliates him over the hospital PA system. And though it doesn't pay enough – which forces her to moonlight as a Cal-O-Metric saleswoman (and struggle due to her preference for improvisation over scripted dialogue) – Virginia is still thankfully working for Dr. DePaul, and their relationship has become another backbone of the series, even as DePaul still keeps a part of herself (like the cause of her black eye) hidden from her secretary.

Excellent stuff. Season premieres – especially ones with this much cast turnover – can get bogged down in exposition, but so long as the series has Sheen and Caplan at the center of it, it's likely always going to be rich and satisfying and very, very complicated.

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I really liked the episode, the direction and acting. Beau Bridges in particular was heartbreaking. I hate Bill. You should hate Bill. You should particularly hate Bill if you are a women, daughter and a mother. If he was half as horrible in real life, his real life son’s mental collapse, frequent arrests and perversion is understandable. He must have abused his son like he was abused by his father. A sad cycle of abuse.

By: lucy

07.14.2014 @ 6:04 AM

Huh? Are you by any chance confusing Michael Sheen with Martin Sheen? Michael had no sons in real life.

By: webdiva

07.14.2014 @ 6:22 AM

No, but Bill Masters had a son and a daughter by Elisabeth Ellis, his first wife, and they were both born before he met Virginia Johnson — in fact, their kids were about the same age and went to school together.

By: Tiger Blood

07.14.2014 @ 6:32 AM

I like Bill.

By: madmeme

07.15.2014 @ 4:02 PM

Wow, some perspective – please!

@Sue: I have yet to read Mr. Meier’s book, but unless he unearthed and wrote about Masters’ treatment of his children – or you have firsthand knowledge of the events in question – IMO, publicly (and anonymously) accusing a real person that did great good in his life – and died relatively recently (plus has living descendants and close relatives) – of abuse and/or criminal activity – based on a fictional representation and your own imagination – is really NOT cool.

William Masters was definitely a damaged person – as many of us are. As portrayed in the show, he’s often an a**hole – no doubt about it. He can also be cold, cruel, selfish, and petty. He’s definitely not the kind of person I would want to have a romantic relationship with – or perhaps even to work for.

OTOH, he was a driven, brilliant man that had a groundbreaking idea for research into an area that was considered taboo at the time – and must of cost him many hours of frustration and ridicule. He helped countless numbers of people – not only with his years of practice AS A DOCTOR HEALING PEOPLE – but with the years of tireless research he put into his studies, which helped many people overcome feelings of shame and develop a more realistic and healthy understanding of the physiology of sexual impulses and desires.

By: madmeme

07.15.2014 @ 4:06 PM

“Maier” – My apologies, a slip of the brain while typing.

By: Thomas Maier

07.14.2014 @ 4:02 AM

What’s interesting about this period is how vulnerable Bill Masters must have felt after having his beloved sex study pushed out of the university by a jury of peers. (What hypocrisy, what hubris! ‘Behold the fundamentals of female sexual physiology’, Bill tells these docs and they give him the heave-ho!)
I think Showrunner Michelle Ashford does a fascinating job of ruminating in this drama what the real-life Bill must have faced, and how the “need” for Virginia was as much to salvage and maintain his study as it was to maintain their affair. Down the road, Bill will once again have plenty moments of power and glory but it’s fun to watch as Michael Sheen portrays him at one of his lowest moments.
Watch how Lizzy matures into this role and really shines. VJ is a tour de force role, certainly as portrayed in my book.

By: robbeck

07.14.2014 @ 3:46 PM

This is a wonderful story and a great show. Thanks for weighing in here, Thomas. I look forward to reading more of your insightful comments.

By: Cat

07.14.2014 @ 5:24 AM

Am I the only one who didn’t buy the idea of Bill and Gini having sex for other reasons than, well, scientific ones?
I mean, I know that the aim of the show is to bring them together as a couple, but considering how tumultous their relationship was in real life, I just don’t see the logic in the current events. Throughout the first season Gini was presented (in my opinion) as wise enough not to get involved with Bill, while Bill was, to put it mildly, a dick. I totally saw them starting a relationship (whatever its nature might be) somewhere in the future episodes, but for now, sleeping with someone who continuously abused you and ended up showing you nude to the entire hospital staff (for whatever reasons), just seems out of character for Gini. It’s clear that, whenever these two decide to have a relationship, the timing would be wrong – it’s just that now this wrong timing doesn’t feel right for the logic of the show.

By: webdiva

07.14.2014 @ 6:20 AM

The thing is, she was also ambitious in a way; she wanted to work on that study and have her name on it as much as he did. She wanted to do something important. Nevertheless, he manipulated her from day one, starting by telling her that sex with him would be a condition of her employment (that’s something we don’t see in the series until later). He prevented her from going back to complete her sociology degree, and over the years, he did everything he could to keep her connected to the study. For example: he’d been married to Libby for 29 years when just after the publication of one of their books from the study, Gini announces that she’s marrying a perfume magnate from New York who was one of their financial patrons. So what does Bill do? He quickly dumps Libby and his two kids so that he can marry Virginia and hold on to her. And he did keep her for 22 years while their work was being done, until a year before retiring he ran into a college flame whom he *really* wanted and loved, and then he dumped Gini just as coldly and instantly as he did Libby.

This is not a guy you *should* feel sorry for — and that Sheen and the screenwriters can make you feel even the slightest sympathy for Masters is nothing short of miraculous.

By: Brandon

07.14.2014 @ 5:48 AM

Alan, I’m surprised at your comment about the “classical” music Bill puts on at the house. Maybe there wasn’t final music when the screeners were sent out, but what we heard at home was “Bye Bye Love” by the Everly Brothers (released in March 1957, btw)

By: webdiva

07.14.2014 @ 6:26 AM

Exactly! I was so surprised by that — never figured Bill Masters as the type to listen to early rock ‘n’ roll. I figured he was probably going to put on a Mozart piano concerto ro something to put the baby to sleep. Obviously, he wasn’t that thoughtful (or baby savvy).

By: sepinwall

07.14.2014 @ 2:43 PM

Brain cramp. I even took note of it being Bye Bye Love when I watched it (and thought of titling this review “There goes my baby”), and then for some reason my mind later convinced me otherwise when I wrote this.

By: eoindaly2k11

07.14.2014 @ 6:08 AM

I liked the risk the show took in trying the puzzle structure and I agree that the payoff was quite satisying in the end even though in this episode Masters was being awful and while he is a tortured soul his actions in the premire were unquestionably awful. The plot of the episode that hit me most was the Scully storyline that now sadly is being haulted as the whole family starts on different shows. Bridges and Janney especially sold there moments and I will miss them but I trust the show to survive without them. All the other supporting characters written off made me happy as I never responded to them that well and the possiblity of Betty’s return has me overjoyed as she was one of my favourite parts of last year. Caplan just keeps getting better in this role and while I was sadened to see her character so victimised the entire episode her conversation with Nicholson’s character made up for that as the female relationship between those two has been so well released and really does work. I agree with you that the direction was great the entire episode as moments of great tension were occuring I never felt overwelmed and usually the best direction works for me when I notice it helping the story as the director of the premire did. A major issue I have with the show is Libby character who just bores me when ever she is on screen because I feel the actress brings nothing to the role and history plays aganist her role as ultimately we know she is useless in this story because she will be gone by the 70’s.

By: webdiva

07.14.2014 @ 6:47 AM

Yeah, but this is still the mid-1950s, and Bill doesn’t divorce Libby until 1971 — which is still a good long 15 years or so into their research period. So no, Libby being there doesn’t bother me, although I suspect her character is deliberately made to be more pollyanna-ish and less three-dimensional than Virginia, so that one can see the contrast between them.

By: webdiva

07.14.2014 @ 6:41 AM

Whoa. I just couldn’t believe the way that Bill was rationalizing throughout that whole last conversation in the hotel and the way Virginia was practically feeding him the lines at one point. I got the sense that she may have meant him to understand that she didn’t love him (not at that point, anyway) but would consent to the affair, so long as he let her continue to work on the study … whereas he was simply lying to himself about how much he wanted her for both professional and carnal reasons. (it wasn’t love, no matter what he said: one questions whether a man that narcissistic and focused on his work could love anyone; but apparently he did near the end of his life — it just wasn’t Virginia).

I really did like the scenes with Dr. DePaul, however; you get the sense that Gini is truer to herself when she’s interacting with Dr. DePaul — or even with Libby, surprisingly, when she warns Libby to look out for herself and the baby and opines that nobody can really persuade Bill to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Her growing friendship with Dr. DePaul provides Gini with an opportunity to redeem herself in her own eyes; she doesn’t have to rationalize anything she does to help that good doctor. But at some point soon, it looks like Virginia will have to choose between helping to carry on Dr. DePaul’s work, once the latter gets too ill to do it herself, and Bill’s sex study, which promises to be just as important to women but a lot more likely to get notoriety. One doesn’t envy Gini that particular decision, especially as she’s tried to encourage Dr. DePaul when no one else would.

By: Thomas Maier

07.14.2014 @ 12:19 PM

with Bill and Gini, the dynamic was always a lot of attract and repel, push and pull. So having an affair at arms length really was part of their story as I detail in my book. t

By: lorraine desrosiers

07.14.2014 @ 2:37 PM

Virginia understandably has self-interest in resuming “the work”. She herself acknowledged early in the series that sex and love do not necessarily have to go together and she proves that by having sex with Ethan and George without really loving them. She has high standards for herself but she enjoys sex. She is also a single mother and her belief in the efficacy and eventual success of the work she and Bill do significantly justifies much that she might not do otherwise, whether related to sex or not, her very late hours for example or participating in Bill’s lies to Libby. She is obviously also a natural for the work. I think that ultimately Bill will be disappointed when it turns out her intimacy with him is even less personal for her than for him and always was. I believe she is the “real” researcher here due to her personal knowledge about sex and her rare ability to be ahead of her time. I don’t believe Bill is really lovable in the series, and if possible was probably less so in real life. Back in the 50s and through to the 70s the work of sex researchers enabled both men and women to separate sex from love by providing a measure of social acceptability and real knowledge. We live now in a society informed by that research. But I believe that at least in some important ways, many now can see just how destructive that separation can be and are creating new values that recognize the virtues of loving the person you are intimate with. If the series creators have any real willingness to be part of the sexual revolution at this late date, they have the opportunity to explore that. Not every conclusion drawn from the research is true, such as that women can be sexually fulfilled without a man or any partner. It was merely a conclusion drawn by those who considered the findings revelatory, a conclusion for its time and not necessarily for all time.

And by the way, didn’t Libby look gorgeous in that all-blue outfit? Some would say too mid-century matchy-matchy to be considered fabulous today, but I loved it!

By: madmeme

07.15.2014 @ 3:55 PM

@Lorraine:

“Back in the 50s and through to the 70s the work of sex researchers enabled both men and women to separate sex from love by providing a measure of social acceptability and real knowledge. We live now in a society informed by that research. But I believe that at least in some important ways, many now can see just how destructive that separation can be and are creating new values that recognize the virtues of loving the person you are intimate with.”

You sound confused. Humans have been separating sex from love for much of homo-sapiens 250 million years on this planet. In fact, “romantic love” – as currently defined in Western terminology – is believed to have originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily from French culture – derived from “courtly love” by knights in the Middle Ages, which stemmed from chivalry as a moral code of conduct. Do you imagine that in the millions upon millions of arranged marriages that have taken place over the last 4,500 years, that the husband and wife waited until they were “in love” before consummating the marriage?

Sex researchers (such as M&J) had absolutely nothing to do with “enabling men and women to separate sex from love” – humans have been doing it since recorded history (and beyond). They just cataloged and documented a side of human behavior and physiology that had never undergone scientific scrutiny before.

Sex without love can be absolutely wonderful – or – damaging – or – anything in between. So can “romantic love” without sex.

By: Lbsammills51

07.14.2014 @ 8:10 AM

I’d forgotten how ugly Bill’s scenes with his mother, and how sad Beau Bridges’ and Allison Janney’s scenes together could be; this premiere has you dive right back in to this world. Well-acted and dynamic on all counts, but not an easy watch.

I’m thrilled Annaleigh Ashford is back, but sad that apparently Helene York won’t be around this season.

Anyways, a nice start to the season.

By: bmfc1

07.14.2014 @ 9:13 AM

And Bill’s mother was so upset that she joined a cult, only wore white, stopped speaking and became a chain smoker.

By: Pomo59

08.28.2014 @ 1:20 PM

and then killed herself!

By: Genevieve

07.14.2014 @ 4:54 PM

This show is really fantastic, and I’m so glad to have it back. I agree that it’s a quite the tour de force that this show is able to make me feel sympathy for Bill after the kind of horrible behaviour he exhibited toward his son and mother.

I had a different read on Barton looking at porn in the bathroom. I thought he was trying to figure out whether the therapy had worked or not, but your read is probably more consistent with the next scene with him and Margaret.

By: Trilby

07.15.2014 @ 10:30 AM

I glad you said that about the “different angles” because for me it was a bit subtle, to the point where I thought maybe it was me and I might have lost my mind a little.

And then I thought Bill was a MONSTER to his baby and to his mother, so that didn’t sit well.

The two of them saying in turn that it wasn’t an affair, it was “the work” was kind of silly, I thought. I dunno…

Was so looking forward to it, but I’m not onboard yet.

By: belinda

07.15.2014 @ 9:12 PM

Margaret and Barton was pretty heartbreaking to watch.

With Bill and Virginia, somewhere at the back of my mind, I wish Virginia doesn’t desire Bill the way she does. Given her drive and personality and not a lack of options even at that particular moment (in DePaul and/or Ethan), it just seems like she would have been quite successful as a doctor or scientist even if she decided not to work with Bill. (Bill came up with the sex study idea, of course, but at least through the show it seems like Virginia could through schooling learn the parts Bill excelled at, whereas Bill could never have succeeded at what Virginia brought to the study.)

By: Chris

07.16.2014 @ 7:55 PM

How did Dr. De Paul get that black eye?

By: Chris

07.16.2014 @ 7:55 PM

How did Dr. De Paul get that black eye?

By: Jon C

07.19.2014 @ 11:07 PM

i enjoyed the episode…but I was distracted by the new look of Virginia. Initially I knew something was different but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then my wife and I both exclaimed nearly at once. Her eyebrows! They are trimmed differently and her hair is cut differently. Her new look is extreme to me. I thought the producers were attempting to make her look a bit too glamorous, maybe to justify a man with a fiance and a married surgeon (both surgeons) falling in love with her? I think the producers should have left her look alone, unless the new look was somehow worked into the story line…eg…”Ginny, you just need a new look, or a new something to get the man you want.” But no, the episode just started out with this new look. Again, it would not have been so bad except it is so obvious in the editing. The flash back scene was difficult to watch because I could tell whenever it was old ginny mixed with new ginny footage. I don’t mean to be hard on the show. It’s a great show. I just can’t understand why they would tamper with what was working so well and why they would not think the audience would not notice or care?

By: Mark

07.22.2014 @ 7:50 AM

What was the real life hospital in St. Louis that Masters moved on to?